Black SheWaltz
by Elendil Star-Lover
Summary: I was created to destroy, but does that mean I must? I completely obleterated Lindblum because I followed my master's orders. Does that make me a murderer? Can I repay society for my sins? I am Black Waltz Zero: Black She-Waltz
1. Sixteen years ago

Black She-Waltz By Elendil Star-Lover  
  
Sixteen years ago.  
  
Eight-year-old Kuja grunted in disgust at the Genomes milling about following Garland's orders. The white-haired boy followed no one. He had not even listened to Garland when he threw the other one into Gaia. He was his own master and did not await a soul; he had his own and he had his own agenda.  
  
He was, however, regretting that rash decision. That other one could have been useful to this Waltz experiment. However, the past was in the past and no use changing it, even though he was forced to return to his birthplace. Still, a pre-made body would make things simpler, especially if someone else did the work.  
  
SomeTHING. These pitiful, tailed creatures had no souls. Unlike Kuja, despite their appearance, they were no he's or she's. They were its. That wouldn't do, either. His beast needed a soul, merciless and without conscience or fear, yes, but a soul still or it would bite the hand that fed it since it would be designed to kill everything its master told it to, not JUST follow orders.  
  
The eight-year-old super genius strode to the underground lab carefully keeping his eyes blank and his face slack. He let his tail show, too. He remembered the lab well; after all, he had been born there. He knew just what to tell the attendants: Master Garland wants an experiment. Heightened senses, agility, speed, strength, and immunities. Red hair with feathers. Physical age: newborn.  
  
The soulless zombies didn't question the physical characteristics. Kuja knew they wouldn't.  
  
Okay, tell you guys what: if you enjoy this story and like the She-Waltz, I'll make a series out of it. If I get enough review, I'll load in the next chapter and I might be enthused enough to write more on the story, 'kay? As always, talk t the review box, he's lonely. 


	2. Six years ago

Six years ago.  
  
"You called, Master?" the redhead warrioress asked, kneeling in front of eighteen-year-old Kuja, paying careful attention to his arm hidden behind his back. She looked a lot like him, slender, strong, with hair fading gracefully from hair to feathers.  
  
"Yes, I did. Who do you serve?" he sneered.  
  
The girl said blankly with no emotion, "You, my lord."  
  
Kuja smiled coolly, "Good. It is time for the next step in my experiment."  
  
"May I ask what, my lord?"  
  
Kuja's response was to draw a hypodermic needle from behind his back and stab the girl in her left arm. She cried out in surprise but knew the wound would close in a matter of hours. She felt the poison burn as it permeated her body and then the world spun, slid out of focus, and finally disappeared.  
  
She curled up in her room. She felt sick. The small of her back oozed pus and burned. Welts had formed beneath the skin. The redhead's body trembled violently, but her only concern was showing weakness. She'd wait it out; after all, her master needed her to fulfill his mission. He would not kill her. 


	3. Yesterday

Yesterday.  
  
"You called, Master?" she asked.  
  
Kuja surveyed his handiwork. She was beautiful, six feet tall with flame- red hair and feathers peeking from a wide-brimmed steeple hat. She was thin and wrapped in a black trench coat. Leather lady's gloves gloved her hands and buttoned boots climbed their way to two very shapely knees. Black feathered wings with the occasional red thread stuck out from her back and between them slept a sword nestled in its soft, warm bed of feathers.  
  
"Yes I did. Who do you serve?"  
  
"You, my lord."  
  
"Good. The town of Lindblum. Destroy it." 


	4. My Heart Desires a Cookie Tribute to Oni...

Chapter one: My Heart Desires a Cookie (tribute to Onitna ^_^)  
  
Eika-you're missing something. She's - - well, any more would be spoilers, so keep readin'.  
  
It had been over so fast that I hadn't realized I had done it! The Waltz, it had burned, blasted, and exploded Lindblum into nothing but ash and bodies. The sight, smell, and sound of it all had nauseated me until I could hardly stand, but I had been most afraid when my second friend, Zidane, looked at his home with such a look of hate and terror. Then we heard it laughing, a frightening, pitiless sound precisely like a knife glistening in moonlight.  
  
I felt the rage well up inside me like a volcano. It heated me until the cold from fear was gone, my blood boiled, and my fingers shook a little more then usual. Before I knew what happened, flames surrounded me, and I heard it scream and saw it drop from the sky.  
  
I had jumped back with startilization from my own little-used power. From far off, I had heard Dagger yell at me to do something about the fire and I used ice magic to cool the flame, and then in a flash, the fire was out and the bodies being counted.  
  
Zidane fell to his knees and screamed in rage, "WHY? WHAT DID IT WANT?"  
  
I knelt down to touch him, but I was afraid. I didn't know if I had the right: some of the damage had been my doing just to stop the creature and for an instant I had wanted to join her in her blood shedding.  
  
"Zidane." Dagger breathed, "Let's help them, there is nothing more we can do here."  
  
The meek little voice of a frightened, tailed child muttered, "It's coming back."  
  
Garnett eyed him quizzically, "What is?"  
  
"Your royal tone. It's coming back."  
  
Steiner showed his first hint of caring for the monkey-child, "Lets get you and Master Vivi to the inn, it's the only structure intact and they'll use it to care for the wounded."  
  
I wanted a cookie. I hadn't desired one since my grandpa died. He always gave me white chocolate chunk after supper to speed my growth, and when I was unhappy. I know that his first intent had been to eat me, but he started to like me. He named me "Vivi Oruntia" after his favorite brand of cookies and had eventually stopped pondering whether I was worth eating or not. He called me his little friend, which was the common language translation for the cookies he liked. He taught me a lot and I love and miss him still.  
  
I remembered when I fell off the cliff. I'd scraped my knees up and Grandpa Quan had fed me cookies. I remembered the sting of my still scarred knees. My heart felt like my knees. I wanted a cookie very badly.  
  
The smell of burnt flesh turned my stomach. Some people went mad at the attack and their screams filled the air. I clung tightly to Dagger and Steiner. Quina and Steiner suspended Zidane between them. It seemed like an eternity walking to the inn listening to cries of anguish.  
  
"Vivi, did you see where she landed?" Zidane asked numbly.  
  
"How you know Waltz was girl?" Quina demanded hotly, clearly not wanting to be in remotely the same category as the Bringer of Destruction.  
  
Zidane shook his head, "Her laugh, it was so cold and merciless. Only a blood-crazed woman sounds like that. It was enough to send chills down my spine, tail included."  
  
"No, I didn't," I answered, "I was s-scared." I didn't tell them that what scared me most was the desire to join the slaughter.  
  
Dagger mused softly, "You sound like you've heard that sound before, Zidane."  
  
"I think maybe I have. It's not a sound I want to hear again."  
  
I felt very sick.  
  
Steiner looked down at me, "Master Vivi, are you okay?"  
  
"M-my h-heart desires a cookie." 


	5. Fear, Pain, and Why?

Chapter two: Fear, Pain, and Why?  
  
What in the world does "kawaii" mean?!?!?  
  
"I am just saying," Steiner protested, "that perhaps it is not a good idea to have Master Vivi aid in the clean-up."  
  
He added hesitantly, "What, prey tell, heart desires a cookie?"  
  
Steiner was a big man in rusty armor. He served Princess Garnett and only wanted her to go back to Alexandria. He despised Zidane, but I think he feared my power even though I never hurt anyone and showed him how to do many attacks.  
  
"M-my grandpa always gave me cookies when I was upset. I want to help with the clean-up."  
  
Dagger smiled at me. She was a tall girl in orange with long black hair. A faint scar was just between her eyes. She was the princess of Alexandria and the strongest one of the Party, from what I had observed.  
  
"We'll go together, okay, Vivi?" she said. I smiled, but no one could see it.  
  
"You've been awfully quiet," Dagger mused.  
  
"The Waltz scared me."  
  
Lindblum was a mess. People were putting out fires and digging up bodies. The screams f the innocents brought tears to my glowing eyes.  
  
"I-I was just scared of her, really."  
  
Dagger smiled, "How could you tell it was a girl?"  
  
I resisted the urge to tell her, "How could you not? She was a thing of beauty!" I didn't feel that would go over well with the sea of destruction around us. Already we'd found three people, two dead, one pitifully mauled. She scared me so badly, too. I wondered why I had felt like joining her.  
  
I look like the Black Mages, just smaller. I always wondered why no one around was compelled to hide their face from everyone even though from what I saw of humans they'd find me positively adorable. None of them had features quite like mine, either. They were sharp, elfin, and delicate. My grandpa told me that when I grew I'd have to beat the girls off me.  
  
So far, I had done nothing but beat monster off me and I wasn't even good at that. At least I got out of the Festival of the Hunt. I dint want to fight animals. I had been so excited when the woman at the store told me that there would be animals. I didn't realize that I would have to kill them; I thought it would be like a giant petting zoo.  
  
"Vivi! Over here!" Dagger called. We were apart from the others, very apart, in a place that was so far gone that you couldn't recognize it as Tantalus's hideout anymore. Dagger was holding up a wooden plank more then too big for her. She stood on rubble and it slipped beneath her feet and smoked. I could hear the groans of someone beneath it.  
  
I coughed through the black smoke and ran to Dagger's aid without tripping. I wedged myself beneath it to hold before the wind spell I was casting took effect. Dagger started heaving and sat down. I sat beside her.  
  
"A-are you okay?" I asked.  
  
"It's just the smell, and the sounds, and-OH! Vivi, why would my mother do this?!"  
  
I shook my unseen head, "Don't know."  
  
I stared up at the darkening sky, "look, I heard someone under hear, we should get to them."  
  
Dagger and I stood up and resumed digging through what used to be Zidane's home. I felt the charred wood and stone slip beneath me and I tried desperately to grab onto Dagger, but I only succeeded in pulling her down with me. We fell about thirty feet and then landed painfully on a hard rock ground in what looked like Tantalus's basement. Luckily, I cushioned Dagger's fall.  
  
Dagger jumped off me and I inhaled deeply and painfully until I made a rasping sound. I laid there; unable to move, think, or barely breathe through the pain, but except for my already slim pride I was unharmed.  
  
"Are you okay, Vivi?" Dagger asked panickedly.  
  
"Y-yeah," I choked. "I'm good."  
  
I sat up and stared directly ahead. I saw a body. A BODY!! Do you understand?! There was a DEAD PERSON with her head twisted to one side and her glassy green eyes staring at me with a little line of blood leaking from behind her pale lips! Her skin was pale and ashen and she was lying in a pool of her own rubicund blood.  
  
Do you understand my rage and horror? Can you imagine what fear I felt at the body and how that person shouldn't have died? It was horrible. Especially when the body moved weakly.  
  
She turned her head above her and reached for the three-foot spear stuck in her black-clad abdomen. She wrapped her delicate black-gloved fingers around the stick and pulled it out. Dagger gagged and cried out in astonishment. Whoever she was, the girl was very strong and brave. I ran toward the girl and held her head between my hands to keep her still.  
  
"No, don't move. W-wait for s to get help," I told her.  
  
She didn't say a word, but I saw it. I saw the gaping hole in her belly knit and close, leaving only the faintest scar. I knew. Before I realized that her eyes glowed and she had red and black wings, I knew. I knew *who* she was and I knew *what* she was. 


	6. Alexis

Chapter three: Alexis  
  
"MY GOSH!" Dagger screamed. "It's her!"  
  
I was too stunned to speak. That creature that just a second ago I wanted to help was the beast that leveled Lindblum by herself. She was the Waltz that had killed so many...  
  
"We should get rid of her, Vivi," Dagger mused quietly, even though I could tell she didn't particularly want to do that.  
  
I shook my head, "No, no."  
  
The Waltz murmured softly, "Kill, kill."  
  
We couldn't kill her. How could we? She was helpless and it would feel like cold-blooded murder. Maybe later, but then, right then, she was harmless. The dark creature needed our help. What could I do? What could I have done?  
  
"Why don't you kill me?" the Waltz asked. "I am at your disposal."  
  
Dagger agreed with me, "That would be wrong. You are weak and injured."  
  
"Fools!" the Waltz spat back. "You would wait until I am strong enough to kill you to feel better of yourselves?"  
  
"Yes," I answered. "It's called 'mercy'."  
  
No, perhaps that wasn't quite what mercy was. Perhaps she could learn better what it is.  
  
"'Mercy'?" she asked inquisitively. "Tell me more."  
  
Dagger sighed, "First, tell us your name."  
  
"Name? My master calls me Black Waltz Zero: Black She-Waltz: Codename: Alexis." 


	7. Riot

Chapter four: Riot  
  
I don't know why, but I fed her. Told her things. I made sure her broken wing and tail healed straight. I brought her new clothes and taught her mercy. Every day she seemed to slip into depression and self-loathing. I was afraid that I hadn't been gentle enough and had destroyed her psyche. I was afraid that she would soon hurt herself, but I couldn't take her out of hiding because the Lindblums hated and feared Alexis and her kind. What to do with her, I could not begin to guess.  
  
:30~  
  
My tail twitched at the sounds from outside the inn. People were shouting about something. I didn't care. Just a week ago, the only thing remotely resembling a home that I'd ever had had been burned to the ground by a single creature. So long as there was no more damage or death, I didn't care what happened. I was still numb.  
  
"KILLER!" someone shouted with vindictive acid. "MURDERER! I had two children before you came around, do you CARE?!"  
  
WHAT? Did he just say..?  
  
I was on my feet and running as fast as my long legs would carry me past the makeshift hospital and into the streets. They were beating her with anything they could find, rawhide ropes, metal, would, broomhandles, glass bottles. She had ropes tied around her neck, arms, and legs. Her wings were tied to her back. She didn't respond. Her slender, elfin face kept entirely neutral except for her watering glass-green eyes.  
  
I felt rage and hate well up inside me so deeply that it scared me. I wanted to kill her, join in with the rioters rampaging the streets and breaking things just to have something else to throw at her. Before I knew what precisely to do, Vivi was standing at my side and holding Dagger's hand.  
  
"My, g-gosh. ALEXIS!" he whispered with frightening intensity. Alexis? Who was Alexis?  
  
The rioters dragged the beast into the inn and passed us. The ironsmith was leading them, and he was carrying a cage big strong enough to hold the mega-mystery-beast that was supposed to be the highlight of this year's Festival. The rioters shoved past me and ran to the basement. By the time a reached them, I was numb all over and SHE was in the cage.  
  
Dagger flew into a rage, "THAT'S ENOUGH!! ALL OF YOU GET OUT!!"  
  
The bravest man muttered quietly, "But--!"  
  
"OUT!"  
  
The entire crowd left with the silence of a mouse walking on Pluto.  
  
I turned to Dagger and Vivi, "Okay, would the two of you like to explain something?" 


	8. Can I keep her?

Chapter five: Can I Keep Her?  
  
"ARE THE TWO OF YOU UTTERLY NUTS?" I bellowed. "You didn't kill her?"  
  
It was impossible. Surely even Vivi wouldn't be so naïve...On second thought...  
  
Dagger shook her head, "No, she was...helpless. We'd have been no better then her."  
  
"Uh-huh. And you don't see a problem with letting it LIVE?"  
  
Vivi raged, "SHE! OKAY, SHE! SHE'S LEARNED SO MUCH FROM ME IN THE PAST FEW DAYS, I DARESAY SHE'S HARMLESS!"  
  
We stared at him. To this day, I think he saw a little of himself in the She-Waltz. I think it showed in the way his temperament and speech abruptly changed. It was as if...she controlled part of his mind. Part of it scared the little guy, part of it *liked* it, liked the beast.  
  
I wanted to talk to IT, not to them. I had no pity for the monster that destroyed my home. I just wanted it dead. I ran down the stares and heard...  
  
"...I whispered in his ear, death is but a sleep..."  
  
What? Could Waltzes sing? "...It pains nonetheless, it burns with an eternal white-hot flame..."  
  
What could she possibly have to sing of?  
  
"...The pain of waking up and finding that you're wrong, the pain never ends and it is time to die..."  
  
Oh.  
  
"...I cause pain, 'tis all I am. I must repent for my sins. Forgive me, for I have murdered..."  
  
A song, a prayer, or both? She heard me and stopped her singing. She spun around and stared at the full length of me. Her hat was down and tied around her neck with cords designed to keep it from flying off. Her face was beautiful, pale with green eyes and red hair. I could see slightly pointed incisors. She toward over me a full six feet. A... red tail...dangled through a small hole in the back of her tattered drab black dress. Her knee-high slender boots buttoned and a spiked flail (mace for those of you fond of Hollywood, spiked ball chained to a rod) dangled upside-down from her belt.  
  
"You have a tail," I muttered, shocked and numb. I was the only one who had a tail on Gaia. At least, I seemed to be. In all my sixteen years, not one fair senoirita I have flirted with had one, and trust me, that's a lot.  
  
"As do you," she answered.  
  
"Yeah, but I... I don't really know what I am."  
  
"Neither do I, except a murderer."  
  
"You were singing." I chose to ignore her. A tail? Did she...know where I came from? There was only one way to find out, and it was utter foolishness.  
  
"Is that a problem?" she blinked. Could it be..? She was so innocent sounding. Perhaps...No.  
  
"Why? What did we do to you?" I demanded.  
  
She turned away from me, "You did nothing. I was ordered."  
  
"Ordered. You were *ordered* to level Lindblum and you didn't see a problem with that?"  
  
"Not until a week ago, no."  
  
"What happened a week ago?"  
  
"Vivi and Dagger spared me and therefore taught me mercy."  
  
:30~  
  
I went back upstairs and glared at them, the princess seated in a chair while the mage sat on a dusty, partially burned table.  
  
Vivi ginned sheepishly and then asked, "Zidane, can I keep her?"  
  
I found the nearest kickable thing: a chair. I sent it into the wall with such force that it broke. The girl SEEMED harmless, but...Perhaps, just perhaps...  
  
"Fine!" I shouted, "But if she sticks so much as one feather out of line, I'll make sure she never sees the light of day again." 


End file.
